The IEEE International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST) is named after the Carnahan House which was a conference center at the University of Kentucky located in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. This was purchased by the University of Kentucky in 1956 along with the remainder of the estate long known as the Coldstream Farm. It was here, along with the Lexington Chapter of the IEEE (which is still a sponsor) that the ICCST had its origins. Today, the conference location varies from year-to-year in recognition of the international scope that it now covers. The conference is the oldest, continuously running conference exclusively devoted to security technology.

The ICCST was initiated by Professor Robert Cosgriff, Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. President Johnson had just launched his "war on crime" and Professor Cosgriff felt that a conference on electronic countermeasures would be a worthy contribution to this "war." The first Carnahan Conference, convened in 1967, was regional and drew a dozen people from Cincinatti, Ohio, Louisville and Lexington.